quick distributor question

[skotman]

i replaced the cap and rotor recently on my 89 crx dx. initially, the rotor was, after the car had warmed up a few minutes, actually physically contacting the 4 metal contacts inside the cap. it was making a "click click click click" noise that i could actually feel when i put my hand on the distributor cap itself while the car was running.

here's the question: are brand new cap and rotor sets supposed to contact like this initially until their spacing becomes correct through the two pieces wearing each other down, or are they supposed to be spaced correctly right out of the box? the cap and rotor are the same brand. i made sure of this to avoid problems such as this.

i didn't overtignten the rotor's screw, and it never did this before i changed them, however i did notice a very similar wear pattern on the old cap/rotor, though it wasn't BAD.

my guts tell me that my distributor is probably warped, or the screw is half a turn too tight and causing metal to metal contact, but i just don't have enough experience with these things to know for certain.

anyway, thanks
skot

[johnb16a2]

Yeah something is definately wrong, as far as I know the terminal and rotor should not touch. I would check with the parts place to confirm you have the right rotor for your application. Also if you look at the terminals are some worn and not others?

[civickiller]

this same thing happened when i changed my cap and rotor, rotor was hitting contatct point in cap, went away so im not worried about it anymore

[skotman]

all 4 contact points have wear as if the rotor makes direct contact with all 4 on each revolution. this is why i'm thinking maybe it's warped. the old one had the same wear pattern on all 4 contacts. the noise is less noticable, so i'm guessing it's slightly warped, but not enough to affect timing, and it's something i should look into fixing in the future, but for right now... IT AIN'T BROKE.